An old friend of mine reminded me this morning of something very important. He asked himself a very important question. Who am I to judge someone else? Want to cook up some real anger? Go ahead and judge someone else. Want to add to the list of resentments? Just judge another person.
On an old TV show a detective would say, “Just tell me the facts”. According to the writers of that show, if you wanted to know the truth, all you needed were the facts. But facts will never give you the truth. Johm LeCarre, the great spy novelist, was asked if his stories were factual. He said no, but that they were true. He said the world was filled with facts but none of the facts would tell you the truth.
We say that so and so did such and such. Those are the facts. But that is not necessarily the truth. The truth is that when we judge someone else’s actions, we are probably judging ourselves and not the other person.
Someone once said, “Judge not that you be not judged”. Anytime I judge someojne else I will probably find myself doing much the same thing later on…or maybe I’ve already done it.
And my judgement of myself will be far harsher.
Forgiveness is the answer. My friend pointed out that forgiving and letting go is what frees us. I needed to hear that this morning. I don’t need the burden of resentments and anger.
But it’s so easy to fall into that trap.
If I want to continue to grow along spiritual lines and stay sober, I’m going to have to learn what my friend suggested. How to forgive and forget. How to not judge others or even myself. Do I even know the truth of myself? Probably not. Not until I’m able to talk to another trusted friend, who can show me the truth about me. Someone, who can help me past my denial of the truth. When I can learn that I may not be so quick to judge someone else.
All this is just to say that for this day I want to stay sober. I need sober thinking for this day and I can’t get to that if I’m going around judging others.
Just thinking.